We devised a step-by-step flight-booking process that lets travelers focus on the important details when they’re important. We prioritized making the fastest-booking airline website, and we reinvented the standard boarding pass; the first-ever responsive website resulted in a major shift for an industry unaccustomed to change. We developed a visual language based on illustrations in place of slow-to-load photographs, and we took inspiration from the company’s mood-lit planes and cheeky sense of humor to create an experience that felt distinctly Virgin America.

Virgin America’s key metric, conversion, has increased by over 10 percent since the site’s launch last June. WIRED reported it was “a site that gets flyers booked nearly twice as fast”; pages load in 2 seconds on average, and it takes 8 seconds to complete check-in. Even before the website’s wide release, its initial beta version received a groundswell of praise on social media channels like Twitter. As a rare example of digital-first branding, the look-and-feel is being deployed across all channels, including in airports. Virgin America executed a successful IPO last fall.